iPad Exhibit Future/Canvas2 Shows Off Tablet’s Arty Side

Matthew Watkins' The Modern Sommelier was created using an iPad app.Image courtesy Matthew Watkins

SAN FRANCISCO — As the World Wide Developers Conference celebrated Apple’s newest technology, a nearby exhibit showcased the latest in iPad artistry.

In a gutted speakeasy allegedly once owned by Al Capone, artists and developers showed off their creative takes on the tablet Monday at the opening of Future/Canvas 2, a show dedicated to “the emerging medium of iPad art.”

“What was once a product in the App Store can transform into art,” Josh Michaels, the event’s founder and creator of the Magic Window app, told Wired.com. “We tapped into something with the first go ’round. Now we’re getting all this energy back out.”

Michaels organized the first Future/Canvas exhibition in December 2010. Considering the newness of the iPad, he expected few queries about his project.

“The response floored me,” the San Francisco programmer said, smiling and waving his arms through the air to mimic an explosion. He approached Art.com and together they put together the free event to show off finished pieces produced using the iPad, in addition to apps that allow the user to be creative and interactive on their own.

“It’s nice when you can forget about the chart rankings for a while,” Michaels said, referencing the sales statistics Apple provides app makers.

At the Future/Canvas 2 opening, Jason Smith showed off his “particle” visualization app Uzu. Users manipulate a whirring field of pixels with various touch motions; the flow and relation of colored particles changes and alters, depending on the number of touch points and their orientation on the screen. Up to 10 fingers can manipulate the particles at one time.

“I’ve received e-mails from parents thanking me,” Smith said. “Their child has a debilitating handicap like cerebral palsy. Playing, creating with Uzu, together, is one of the few ways they say they feel like they’re connecting with them on a deeper level.”

Elsewhere at the exhibit, collections of prints, painted by conductive-bristle brushes on the iPad and printed on high-quality printers, hung from the venue’s weathered concrete walls. Brushes app creator Steve Sprang browsed the works and afterward nodded toward Matthew Watkins‘ display of prints near the entrance.

“This is some of the best use of Brushes I think I’ve ever seen,” Sprang said.

Other exhibits included Sandra Rauch‘s massive homage to the Bay Area’s business evolution — from the Gold Rush to Google — all centered on an iPad.

Orion Elenzil’s Prisms app, which has not yet been released, let users manipulate beams of light through collections of shaped and colored prisms. It could easily swallow 20 minutes of your time, as there is a certain beauty in manipulating theoretical light and angles of refraction and watching what happens.
Sponsors ArtRage and Adobe had displays showing off their products’ new features.

The Future/Canvas 2 exhibit runs through June 23 at 998 Market St. in San Francisco.

This image, created using the not-yet-released Prisms app, shows how the iPad lets users manipulate manipulating theoretical beams of light.Screenshot courtesy Orion Elenzil

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